With the rise of home businesses, more and more people are discovering ways to use work from home to pursue entrepreneurship. There’s no shortage of perks of remote working: full-time parents can choose flexible hours and avid travellers can take their work on the go with them, no matter where they are. Running a business from home yourself requires all the hard work of setting up a physical business, but once set up, provides ample freedom.

In today’s connected world, where technology allows us more flexibility in how and where we work, home-based businesses come in a variety of forms. Some require you to convert a spare room into a mini-warehouse for your products, while others can be run completely online. So here is a list of profitable businesses you can start from home today either online or offline.

Sell handmade products

Do you love to create things at home? Why not sell your handcrafted products online? For example, you could:

• Make candles
• Create jewellery
• Make homemade food
• Craft wooden furniture
• Design and sew clothing
• Knit blankets

Whatever you like to create, selling handmade products is a great way to turn a passion into a work-from-home business opportunity.

If this business idea has caught your eye, start by writing a list of everything you can create, that you would like to sell. Then, do some research to see what other people are selling and how they are going about selling their products.

Start a print on demand business

Similarly, if you like to create art and eye-catching designs but don't want to make products yourself, you could start a print-on-demand business from home.

But what is a print on demand business? Print-on-demand is a type of dropshipping in which you can sell products that are customised with your very own designs, such as:

• Art: posters, canvases, stickers etc.
• Apparel: T-shirts, hoodies, leggings etc.
• Accessories: Jewellery, bags, face masks, notebooks etc.
• Footwear: Sneakers, boots, sandals etc.
• Homeware: Mugs, bedsheets, cushions, blankets etc.

If this business idea is exactly what you're looking to do, we recommend you head over to Printful. There you can create and sell custom products online, turning your ideas into premium products.

Teach online

If you have skills and knowledge that are in-demand and a talent/passion for teaching, why not consider teaching via online video calls. The most popular subjects taught online include languages, maths, science, and business. But there are no limits to what you can teach, so you could also teach things like music, performing arts, or even DIY!

There are countless online teaching platforms that will help you to connect with students and manage your classes, such as:

• Teachable
• SkillShare
• VIPKid
• Udemy

Purchase products in bulk and sell them online

Another way to sell products online is to buy products in bulk — also known as 'wholesale' — and sell them individually. When you purchase products in bulk, you can get a lower cost-per-unit than if you buy them individually. Then, when selling the products one-by-one, you're able to increase the prices to create yourself a nice little profit. But where can you buy fantastic goods in bulk?

Start by researching products on sites such as Alibaba, eBay, Amazon. Find the product(s) you want to sell. You can then create an online store with Avanty to sell your products to consumers. Plus, instead of selling products individually to consumers, you could also purchase products in bulk and sell them to retailers in smaller quantities. This is commonly know as wholesaling.

Start a dropshipping business from home

We briefly mentioned dropshipping earlier on in the blog, when we were discussing print on demand businesses. But what is dropshipping? Dropshipping is a type of ecommerce in which sellers don't need to purchase or store the products they sell. Instead, the sellers partner with dropshipping suppliers who manage the complete inventory and ship products directly to customers on the seller's behalf.

Dropshipping supplier can be local or overseas, but in the case you go down the road of dropshipping, it's important you find a supplier you can trust to deliver a consistently great customer experience after the sale. So always do your due diligence or you might put your business’ reputation at risk.

Sell digital products online

If you've mastered a skill or subject and don't want to teach online or provide a service, you could package your knowledge and experience into a digital product people can buy. Here are just 9 types of digital products you can start selling today:

1. Courses
2. Ebooks
3. Written templates (CV's, scripts, marketing emails, etc.)
4. Logos
5. Illustrations
6. Animations
7. Software
8. Audio (music, podcasts, etc.)
9. Research (statistics, reports, etc.)

Selling digital products is a fantastic home business idea because, like dropshipping, there's no need to manage inventory or ship products to customers yourself.

Start a service-based business from home

People tend to think that in order to start a successful business, they need to come up with a billion-dollar tech business idea like Facebook or Amazon. However, that's not the case. All you need to be able to offer a solution for a problem and make life easier somehow. So a service based business is perfect to start up at home. If you're wondering what service you can offer, here are just 12 service based home business ideas you need to consider:

1. Graphic designer
2. Translator
3. Web designer
4. Transcriber
5. Social media manager
6. Finance consultant
7. Marketing consultant
8. Digital advertising manager
9. Bookkeeper
10. Accountant
11. Life coach
12. Virtual assistant

Build an online following that you can monetise

If you love creating content, you could build an online following around a particular topic or niche and monetise your audience. For this home business idea, you need to choose a way to build an audience. Here are just a few ways platforms you can use to create a following online:

• Instagram
• TikTok
• Twitch
• YouTube
• TikTok

You can also create a blog and grow your readership through regular posting and engagement with your readers.

Once you have a big enough following or plenty of website traffic, how can you make money online? In essence, there are three ways to monetise an online audience through the above platforms:

• Affiliate marketing: Earning a commission through promoting a company's products and/ or services.
• Brand sponsorships: Get paid to promote a company's products.
• Sell products: Create and sell physical or digital products to your growing audience.

Choose A Home-Based Business Idea and Get Started Today! 

When deciding which home business idea to pursue, capitalise on the skills and experiences you already have as well as following your own personal interests and passions. Take into account all the information above and make sure you love what you do.